GLOBAL ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

KEY FINDINGS

• The move to online learning could be the catalyst to create a new, more effective method of educating students. While some worry that the hasty nature of the transition online may have hindered this goal, others plan to make e-learning part of their ‘new normal’ after experiencing the benefits first-hand
• While countries are at different points in their COVID-19 infection rates, worldwide there are currently more than 1.2 billion children in 186 countries affected by school closures due to the pandemic.
• Within companies, there is a rise in enrolments in courses related to telecommuting and virtual teams and decision making, self-discipline, stress management
• There is strong global growth in top-ranking professional skills such as neural networks, communication skills and growth mindset. Topics like Pilates, technical drawing and ukulele have surged as well
• People in the US are gravitating towards Adobe Illustrator, the Spanish are taking piano and focused on investing, Indians are learning business fundamentals and communication skills and Italians are taking courses on guitar, copywriting skills etc.
• With 9.8 million online learners, India ranks second on online learning platform Coursera’s inaugural 2020 impact report. The United States ranks on top with 14 million learners. Those which lag behind India include Mexico with 3.8 million students, China with 3.5 million and Brazil with 3 million.

INTRODUCTION TO

Ever since the breakout in the field of internet online leaning sector has grown enormously with various platforms being emerged out of this.

Students globally are demanding high-quality online learning options. Universities are ushering in a new era of digital transformation. Workers are learning job-relevant skills to stay competitive. Public health officials are training thousands of contact tracers at scale.

In a rapidly changing economic landscape, learners need new and accessible ways to develop future-ready skills. While Covid-19 disrupted education systems and jobs worldwide, the transition to online learning ensured people could learn skills to adapt and rebuild their careers.

Since the COVID-19 breakout the online leaning has evidently shown significant growth owing to shutdown of educational institutions worldwide. However, factors such as poor penetration of internet in developing Asian and African countries, insufficient bandwidth and no training for students restraining the growth.

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET SEGMENTATION

By Type of Coaching

• Formal Education
• Informal Education

 By Mode of Learning

• By Videos
• By Online Live Coaching

By Subject

• School Academics
• Language Courses
• Arts and Sciences
• Business
• Others

By Geography

• US
• Europe
• China
• India
• ROW

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET DYNAMICS

Top tier universities are democratizing learning by making the courses accessible online. The e-learning requires 40-60% less time to learn than the traditional learning. Re-reading, learning at own pace and skipping are few factors that help to boost the market in times to come.

Institutions are acting boldly to support their learners and workers through an unprecedented unemployment crisis. Students need job-ready learning, employees need effective skills for remote working, and displaced workers need to regain employment.

This crisis has made clear that institutions need to enable access to education at every stage of civic life. In South Korea close to 225,000 pupils were found to be not having the tech to undergo the online training from the schools and colleges.

It is increasingly becoming clear that the integration of information technology in education will be further accelerated and that online education will eventually become an integral component of school education. A hybrid model of Education which comprises of an amalgamation of online as well as offline training is expected to come into play in order derive the best from both worlds as well as cater to safety norms laid down due to the global pandemic.

• According to BYJU’s, over a period, it has been observed that clever integration of games has demonstrated higher engagement and increased motivation towards learning especially among younger students, can make them enjoy learning

• Edutech platform upGrad reached a million users recently. It grew 100% in 9 months from the start of the FY 2020 and is targeting Rs 2,500 crore($350M) in revenue for FY21-22. The platform has forecasted that it will reach the 2 million user mark within the next 18 months

• According to upGrad Q2 reports, PG Diploma in Data Science, PG Certification in Digital Marketing and Communication, & PG Diploma in Machine Learning and AI have received the highest demand on the platform. Those with skills in AI & ML, Data Science, IoT and Cybersecurity are in high demand, many of them even providing placement assistance

• The Imperial College London started offering a course on the science of coronavirus, which became the most enrolled class launched in 2020 on Coursera

COVID IMPACT ON ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

Even before COVID-19, there was already high growth and adoption in education technology, with global EdTech investments reaching US$18.66 billion in 2019 and the overall market for online education projected to reach $XX Billion by 2025. Whether it is language apps, virtual tutoring, video conferencing tools, or online learning software, there has been a significant surge in usage since COVID-19.

Also, since the lockdown led to adoption of digital as the mainstream mode of teaching and learning, the demand for educational books dropped by 40-50% due to closing of schools and colleges. Universities are now embracing online education demanding digital learning solutions including labs, courseware and e-books. Stay at home learning is driving the need for digital courseware.

Since the pandemic, educational institutions around the world have transitioned to e-learning, and many are yet to return to in-person learning. Covid-19 has altogether altered the landscape of education. Even large universities are adopting e-learning and thus in turn saving on investment in more physical infrastructure. This is also making education more accessible and affordable.

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET  BY TYPE OF COACHING

The informal type of coaching where the courses taken by the students through online platforms has higher market share compared to the formal education system. The rise in more and more online platforms providing with short term courses has affected significantly to this segment.

Job-seekers and recruiters are becoming better at traversing online mediums. When recruitment was frozen online, learning platforms helped job-seekers to upskill seamlessly. UpGrad has been instrumental in getting over 1200 learners placed in 450 + reputed brands

Edutech platforms have had an important role to play in supporting physical institutes’ shift to online learning and working with them to give students the best possible learning support

On the state of online teaching, categories with the highest surge in new courses include office productivity, health and fitness, IT & software and personal development.

The lockdown period across the world has prompted the public to take up new courses online to keep them engaged has proven to be beneficial.

The formal teaching (academic coaching) through online mode has been hit by setbacks such as poor reach out to every student of particular classroom. The rise of platforms such as Scholar LMS and Liveboard in US, TutorRoom and Koolearn in China and Bjyu’s and Vedantu in India has helped the market grow. The current situation has propelled the growth in enormous rate. The need to continue the academics through this period will boost the market.

The lockdown period across the world has prompted the public to take up new courses online to keep them engaged which in turn has proven to be beneficial.

Overall, EdTech platforms are expected to grow, in both K12 and post K12 segments bringing in more students from metros and non-metros online, but will also serve as a means to get better jobs via upskilling and assist physical institutions in taking part of their curriculum, as required, online.

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKETBY MODE OF LEARNING

The videos coaching is the leading mode of learning, the option to access anytime and anywhere makes it the go to option. The leading universities and colleges have introduced the online video coaching on their portals and this has had a positive impact on the video learning mode. The affordable prices of the video coaching course have led to its growth.

The live coaching is the preferred option for the academic coaching especially for the K-12 segment. The dependency on a third party online videotelephony service provider makes the live coaching not a feasible option for the long term. However, the shutdown of schools and colleges has led to the inclination towards the live coaching.

US ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

In US, about 25% of students are not privileged to afford a computer and this is a significant factor which affects the online academic learning. But the rise of online course providing platforms has kept the market moving in the region.

While the internet is an important resource in efforts to stay informed and proceed with daily lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, these online approaches to reducing risk are not available to everyone in the same way. According to reports, more than 24 million Americans have no access to broadband internet, while nearly 163 million Americans lack access to reliable broadband internet connections.

This digital divide falls along existing lines of socioeconomic inequality those who are poorer and live in less affluent areas pay more for less reliable service. And while smartphones are more prevalent across all socioeconomic groups, they’re a poor alternative for broadband internet access for tasks like working from home or attending classes online.

American University, Arcadia University Northeastern University and the University of Buffalo are already advancing virtual study abroad. Their programs range from online courses at a U.S. university’s international branch campus to courses offered in partnership with foreign universities.

These options involve courses designed and taught by either U.S. professors or professors based abroad selected and trained by a U.S. college or university. This is done to make sure the course aligns with the student’s graduation requirements. Virtual study abroad would also enable more students to gain exposure to views from other countries because it costs much less. Not all students can readily afford travel and other costs associated with living abroad.

Universities in the United States have been the most successful in adapting to, and prospering in, the new competitive conditions. In part they have done so by creating vast financial resources to support their operations and protect themselves from opponents. For example, Harvard University’s $40-billion endowment fund allows it to recruit the best students and staff, build state-of-the-art facilities, quickly react to new research priorities and otherwise out-muscle competitors. 

EUROPE ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

The online learning penetration is highest in the Europe region as in the countries such as Switzerland, Norway and Austria as nearly 95% of the students had access to the computer in their homes and the implementation in such regions is relatively easy. The UK e-learning sector is found to be the fastest growing in Europe. Over 1,000 companies are present in this market.

Government organizations in Europe are supporting the adoption of advanced digital learning techniques. The European Data Portal funded by the European Union provides e-learning program to offer clear introduction to open data, deliver training on its basics, and provide supporting materials.

France Education is an initiative of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of National Education. The website provides online education resources offered by the agencies of these two ministries. It targets trainers, teachers, apprentices, and learning enthusiasts focusing on improving their knowledge of the French language. Similarly, The Ministry of Education in Spain encouraged the adoption of e-learning technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In Europe, as educational institutions as well as corporate organizations adopt digital learning techniques to ensure social distancing to stop the spread of the virus. The Italian government created a website to support schools to activate different forms of online learning during the lockdown period linked to the coronavirus emergency.

The corporate sector is also rapidly adopting virtual classrooms with the rise in the demand for effective & reliable solutions for training & monitoring employee performance.

CHINA ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

In China ,the ministry of education is trying to upgrade the education infrastructure by developing a new cloud based online learning platform. Chinese government in February instructed quarter of a billion students to resume the studies online. This has led to the largest online movement towards online learning so far.

The China online education market has seen many new developments in recent years; as a result, novel products have been springing up, gaining more customers’ as well as recognition and attracting more developers and investors.

There have already been successful transitions amongst many universities. For example, Zhejiang University managed to get more than 5,000 courses online just two weeks into the transition using “DingTalk ZJU”.

DingTalk, software developed by Alibaba has been installed 1. 1 Billion times in China due to Covid-19, and it is being used extensively by schools and students. Approximately 220 Million Chinese students- primary, secondary and tertiary were homebound during Lunar New Year holiday because of the current epidemic. This pandemic offers an enormous opportunity for the companies operating in online education space.

China’s online education market has maintained steady growth even before the pandemic. The online education market in first and second-tier cities has gradually matured, while the market in third and fourth-tier cities are still in development. With the increasing emphasis on education, the sinking market has great potential for development.

Children’s education unsurprisingly became the most active section in China’s online education market, accounting for almost 20% of the global market. As the younger parents have stronger education consciousness and had higher consumption capability, and with the development of the Internet, their children are more familiar with online education.

Moreover, the two-child policy produced China’s demographic dividend, so the market share of K12 online education is expected to grow by a considerable margin in the upcoming years.

China’s Ministry of Education has launched an initiative to ensure learning is undisrupted to encourage all schools to leverage online platforms to continue teaching. The government also invested more and more money in this market, but also supported and created new laws and policies about private education, which all helps this field being really prosperous.

In terms of the K12 online education in China, parents are very fond of foreign teachers, especially for language education. Thus, the sector can be very lucrative by knowing how to use the right tools in the Chinese market.

Besides the collaboration tools that are already in place, educational tool providers are also playing an important role in providing both the public education system and private tutoring businesses with online resources to facilitate teaching, such as live streaming platforms, video conferencing, chatting rooms and online tests.

Especially in fields like science, technology and the English language. They are the most profitable markets as those skills will be required to the students when they will search for a job. As a foreign online education company, the market isn’t too hard to enter.

INDIA ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

There has been a dramatic increase in the number of students studying online in India since March 2020. The lockdown and fear of Covid-19 has taken schools, colleges and educational institutions online. Some Edu-tech platforms have seen their user base double in the last 10 months in both segments- paid and free unique users in the K12 and post K-12 segments.

Higher population of young workforce, socio-economic indicators, rising urbanisation, surging internet users and increasing amount of unemployment in the country are a few favourable factors which water the seeds of the rapidly evolving Ed-tech industry. 2020 has seen a higher amount of total investments of USD 2.1 billion in the sector compared to investment of USD 1.7 billion in last 10 years combined.

India’s move to allow universities to offer full online degrees is attracting the various online platforms to approach the universities to provide these courses. This invites various US based online platforms to India and helping them to expand the global presence.

the percentage of enrolled children from government and private schools owning a smartphone increased from 36.5 per cent in 2018 to 61.8 per cent in 2020 in rural India. The resultant reduction in the digital divide between rural and urban, gender, age and income groups is likely to reduce inequalities in educational outcomes

In India, Byju’s is the leader in the market and has witnessed a 200% increase in number of students using the product. For BYJU’S also, with the onset of the pandemic there was a massive uptake in users, with over 40 million new students using their learning apps. Students from metros and non-metros alike have been increasingly accessing BYJU’S lessons. Student engagement rates increased by 30%, with students spending about100 min on the app instead of 71 minutes, per day.

Unacademy believes quality education has unfortunately been a privilege enjoyed by residents of larger Indian cities. With the astronomic rise of EdTech, the barrier to access has been demolished, allowing quality education at affordable rates. In turn, Unacademy has a high learner base in Tier II and III towns; in fact, 70% of their learners come from small towns. They believe that industry and market opportunity is still yet to be tapped and such a growth trend will continue even after the pandemic is close to an end.

THE CHALLENGES OF ONLINE LEARNING

There are, however, challenges to overcome. Some students without reliable internet access and/or technology struggle to participate in digital learning; this gap is seen across countries and between income brackets within countries. For example, whilst 95% of students in Switzerland, Norway, and Austria have a computer to use for their schoolwork, only 34% in Indonesia do.

In the US, there is a significant gap between those from privileged and disadvantaged backgrounds: whilst virtually all 15-year-olds from a privileged background had a computer to work on, nearly 25% of those from disadvantaged backgrounds did not. While some schools and governments have been providing digital equipment to students in need, such as in New South Wales, Australia, many are still concerned that the pandemic will widen the digital divide.

Nevertheless, the effectiveness of online learning varies amongst age groups. The general consensus on children, especially younger ones, is that a structured environment is required, because kids are more easily distracted. To get the full benefit of online learning, there needs to be a concerted effort to provide this structure and go beyond replicating a physical class/lecture through video capabilities, instead, using a range of collaboration tools and engagement methods that promote inclusion, personalization and intelligence with a more holistic approach towards learning and retaining knowledge.

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET SIZE AND FORECAST

The global online education market is projected to witness a CAGR of xx% during the forecast period to reach a total market size of US $xx billion in 2025, increasing from US $xx billion in 2019. Increasing penetration of internet in many regions across the globe is a major factor driving the market growth.

Growing adoption of cloud-based solutions coupled with huge investments by major market players towards enhancing the security and reliability of cloud-based education platforms, is further increasing its adoption among the end-users. Presence of a large number of service and content providers in the market is bringing huge volumes of educational content online. Declining hosting cost and growing need for accessing educational content is further fuelling the adoption of this technology, thus augmenting the market growth.

The market of online learning is expected to continue to growth during the current situation and would well likely continue till the end of the year. Although the live coaching will see a dip once the schools are open, the e-learning through videos will continue to propel. The affiliation of online degrees in many more countries will boost the online learning sector.

While it is believed that the unplanned and rapid move to online learning with no training, insufficient bandwidth, and little preparation will result in a poor user experience that is unconducive to sustained growth, others think that a new hybrid model of education will emerge, with significant benefits.

LATEST TRENDS IN ONLINE EDUCATION MARKET

• Chinese online learning platform Yuanfudao backed by Tencent Holdings is close to completing a fund raiser of 7.5 billion USD.
• Cambridge University in UK has moved to a full academic year of 2020-21 to online learning.
• In Greece, government with the help of Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation is using state TV to promote home schooling amidst lockdown.
• Government of India has allowed top 100 universities in India to start the online degree courses from May 30
• Study 24X7, the social learning network, provides easy information and instant connectivity in an educational ecosystem
• WileyNXT, is a transformative job-readiness bridge education program which aims to create a future-ready workforce for the digital economy and place students in top technology companies, WileyNXT skills university candidates, certifies them and helps them get placed with technology partners
• Integrated with anti-cheat features, human proctoring, AI proctoring, and live proctoring, the Think Exam proctoring software has got an advanced 360 degrees approach. Think Exam helps educational institutions to conduct proctored exams with ease.
• Manipal Education and Medical Group Launches UNext-an EdTech platform. UNext will provide learners an experience through a mobile-first learning management system (LMS) platform, with an access to faculty lectures synchronous and asynchronous models, new age pedagogy, online quizzes and assessments, access to a wide alumni network, and expert assistance and career counselling to boost students’ career opportunities.
• Comprehensive New Online Education Initiative Launched by CUNY. To create CUNY Online, a new endeavour to increase online degree capacity at CUNY and create high-quality online courses and programmes that match student demands, the City University of New York is investing in federal stimulus monies. CUNY Online will be overseen by the CUNY School of Professional Studies (CUNY SPS), the University’s leading and award-winning online school. 
• A new online learning platform called HBCUv has been established by the UNCF (United Negro College Fund) and IT company Deloitte as part of a strategic plan to rethink online education in historically Black colleges and universities. The programme is now being tested at nine institutions (HBCUs). A shared digital learning platform is being tested by nine historically Black colleges and universities, allowing students from other schools to interact and take online courses. 
• In order to further improve its student-centered learning and teaching experiences, WuKong Education Group, the top online Mandarin learning platform, recently released a number of apps as part of its aim to upgrade its digital learning infrastructure. The software offers a variety of useful features, including interactive homework, learning management, and attendance tracking. Investment in educational technology has been shown to improve students' learning experiences, parents' engagement, and teachers' effectiveness.

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKETCOMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

There are numerous online learning platforms in the market such as Udemy, Coursera, Lynda, Skillshare, Baidu, Udacity that serve millions of people. The platforms are getting shaped by different user verticals as well. While Skillshare is mostly for creatives such as giving courses on animation, photography, lifestyle, Coursera is mostly academic with giving access to university courses.

Top tier universities are also democratizing the learning by making courses accessible via online. Stanford University and Harvard University give access to online courses under categories of computer science, engineering, mathematics, business, art, and personal development.

These all show one thing, there’s a huge demand from people to learn online. The reason for this demand and rapid growth of the market with a wide variety of platform options for different groups of people may be the rapid change of the world. Byju’s from India is world’s highest valued EdTech company. Vedantu, another Indian based platform is focussed on formal teaching. The various other online platforms with more than 1500-2000 courses available are Edx, Coursera, Futurelearn, Udemy and Skillshare.

Tencent classroom, meanwhile, has been used extensively since mid-February after the Chinese government instructed a quarter of a billion full-time students to resume their studies through online platforms. This resulted in the largest online movement in the history of education with approximately 730,000, or 81% of K-12 students, attending classes via the Tencent K-12 Online School in Wuhan.

In response to significant demand, many online learning platforms are offering free access to their services, including platforms like BYJU’S, a Bangalore-based educational technology. Since announcing free live classes on its Think and Learn app, BYJU’s has seen a 200% increase in the number of new students using its product.

Other companies are bolstering capabilities to provide a one-stop shop for teachers and students. For example, Lark, a Singapore-based collaboration suite initially developed by ByteDance as an internal tool to meet its own exponential growth, began offering teachers and students unlimited video conferencing time, auto-translation capabilities, real-time co-editing of project work, and smart calendar scheduling, amongst other features. To do so quickly and in a time of crisis, Lark ramped up its global server infrastructure and engineering capabilities to ensure reliable connectivity.

Alibaba’s distance learning solution, DingTalk, had to prepare for a similar influx: To support large-scale remote work, the platform tapped Alibaba Cloud to deploy more than 100,000 new cloud servers in just two hours last month setting a new record for rapid capacity expansion.

Since mid-March, over 21 million learners joined Coursera, a 353 per cent increase from the same period last year. Similarly, more than 50 million course enrollments have been witnessed, a 444 per cent increase. Thousands of colleges and universities now offer Coursera to enrich their students’ learning experience.

Some school districts are forming unique partnerships, like the one between The Los Angeles Unified School District and PBS SoCal/KCET to offer local educational broadcasts, with separate channels focused on different ages, and a range of digital options. Media organizations such as the BBC are also powering virtual learning; Bitesize Daily, launched on 20 April, is offering 14 weeks of curriculum-based learning for kids across the UK with celebrities like Manchester City footballer Sergio Aguero teaching some of the content.

ONLINE EDUCATION MARKETCOMPANY PROFILE

1. Coursera
2. Skillshare
3. Udemy
4. Edx
5. Lynda
6. Futurelearn
7. Skillshare
8. Byjus
9. Tencent
10. Unacademy
11. Khan Academy
12. Vedantu

THISONLINE EDUCATION MARKET REPORT WILL ANSWER FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

1. Online Education Market size and Forecast, by region, by application
2. Average B-2-B price for Online Education Market, by region, per user
3. Technology trends and related opportunity for new Online Education Market tech suppliers
4. Online Education Market share of leading vendors, by region,
5. Coronavirus impact on Online Education Market earnings